


Chemicals React

by silvian303



Category: Dice: The Cube That Changes Everything
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Fluff and Angst, M/M, POV First Person, Series Spoilers, Slow Build, first mooyoung/taebin fic it was bound to happen eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-03-16 23:57:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 18,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3507443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvian303/pseuds/silvian303
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taebin has finally somewhat moved on from Mooyoung's destructive actions by starting a new life. However, Mooyoung has other plans in mind. (Contains Dice Spoilers)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is the first story that I'm publishing on AO3. My friend and I really enjoy this pairing but were surprised there were no fics of them so I decided to write one on my own. It follows the manhwa for the most part so beware of spoilers. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the story!!!

It had been a year since I'd last seen him. I found myself thinking about him often wondering what he was doing, how he was, if he'd changed, but most of all wondering if he'd find me. Who was I kidding? Of course he'd find me if he wanted to. You couldn't run from someone like him, no matter how hard you try. So the real question is, was he looking for me, and if so when would he find me?

Sighing I put down my pencil and leaned back in my chair, realizing these thoughts were too distracting for me to do my homework. I pulled out the dice in my pocket and looked at them. They were pretty to say the least; but I knew they came with a great cost. Dongtae was an idiot for allowing them to spread; but then I remembered I'd been the same. I had wanted to do the same thing he'd done, but never had, and that turned out to be a good thing despite the whole mess that occurred anyway. Thinking about the past gave me a headache and left me feeling empty, so I stopped. I got up and went downstairs to get something to eat. As I went downstairs I saw a shadow pass by the living room window, I rushed to the window to see if I could find out who was outside. But by the time I got there, the shadow was gone. I doubted I'd imagined it, but seeing nothing I decided to brush it off for now. After eating I went to sleep, tomorrow was going to be another long day.

**********************************************************************

I had been right about it going to be a long day; but I had thought it'd be dreary, instead it ended up being somewhat unusual. X was up to no good and had decided to have all the dicers compete in a fight for more dice. It was going to be a bloodbath as far as I could tell. I thought X was strange in this way, what kind of kicks did he get out of this? I looked down at the battlefield with disgust. Just then X decided to start talking to me.

“Don't like what you see? ^.^”

“I'm just wondering how you consider this fun?”

“Ah well, everyone has their own way of having fun, now don't they? XD”

“I suppose.” I answered and leaned against the railing of the rooftop. I saw Dongtae enter the battlefield, and then he seemed to teleport to another location looking somewhat confused. Looks like he'd used time pause again. I still had a hard time believing that he, of all people, was the one with time pause. It wasn't fair, but I'd soon be using him to figure out a way to fight Mooyoung . I know he's coming here, more A-rankers have been emerging as such soon X will have all his players, it's just a matter of time. I sighed and looked at the time, then decided to ditch class and go on a few quests myself. Might as well stock up on dice now, since I'd be needing them later.

“Hey X, find me some new quests already.” I said walking towards the door.

*******************************************************************

My fight with Dongtae hadn't turned out the way I'd hoped. Sure I had been able to land some solid blows, but he figured out how to turn our battle into a stalemate. Time Pause was going to be harder to beat then I'd thought. Sighing I continued walking along the streets with no particular destination in mind. Dongtae had mentioned Mooyoung , apparently was already ahead of me. I wondered just how many of the dice he'd collected. He couldn't have gotten them all yet, I still had time.

As I continued to walk, it began to pour. The rain came down fast and hard, freezing me to the bone and causing me to shiver. I stopped walking and looked up at the sky and the rain fell on my face. Then I heard someone say, “Stand there too long and you'll catch a cold”. I immediately looked around me for the source....that voice...no doubt about it. It was him. I scanned the faces around me looking for his, and then saw him a little ways ahead of me. His hoddie was pulled up and his white hair concealed his face from my view, he just stood there, a smirk playing on his face. I heard him speak again, “If you heard me you should be getting out of the rain, shouldn’t you?”

I stood frozen not knowing whether to run away or towards him. A split second later that decision was made for me as he came closer to me. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I began running away, maybe it was the way he was smiling or maybe it was because I wasn't ready to face him, whatever it was I ran as hard as I could pushing and shoving people away. I looked back once to see that he hadn't stopped following me, but he wasn't running, he'd simply choose to quicken his pace. I fled the crowded streets and down random allies, hoping I would lose him. When I looked back again, he was gone. I stopped running and let out a sigh of relief. Why I was relieved, I was not sure. I started heading home, trying to analyze my behavior and why Mooyoung had chosen to appear right then. My nerve-racked brain couldn’t come up with any plausible explanation.

Once I reached home I pulled out my key and opened the door. No sooner had I done that, I heard him again.

“I was wondering when you'd come home.” he said from behind me as I turned around. Before I could say anything he clamped his hand over my mouth and pushed me inside, closing the door behind him.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mooyoung pays Taebin a long awaited visit.

Mooyoung didn't say anything as he dragged me with him into the living room before letting go. I inhaled sharply as I gathered my thoughts, not sure how to proceed now. He sat down on the sofa, spreading his arms along the top and leaning his head back causing the hoodie to lower but not come off. I debated on what I should do, should I run away again? Or should I talk to him? What was I even supposed to say? I glanced towards him, he remained silent as I examined him. He looked the same as he had back then. He still had the same build, demeanor, and overall vibe. As I continued to debate on what to do while studying him, he finally spoke.

“Are you going to just stand there all day? Why don't you sit down Taebin?” he asked.

Upon hearing him say my name I felt myself shudder though I did not understand why. Mooyoung sat up straight and looked at me waiting for me to take a seat. Somewhat reluctantly I sat across from him in a chair. There were a million questions swarming around in my head as I begin to ponder on which one to ask first. Finally I decided to ask what I most wanted to know at that moment.

“What are you doing here?” I asked hesitantly. Mooyoung hadn't stopped looking at me, and I still wasn't able to tell what he was thinking.

“Isn't that obvious? I'm sure you know since you are the only one who survived last time.” he answered. I shuddered at the way he spoke, remembering all my old friends. I actually thought there had been a chance that they'd survived, but now...I knew. They hadn't, only I had. Mooyoung really did end up killing them when he'd taken their dice.

“What are you doing here” I repeated, stressing the word here. I wanted to know why he was here, at my house. What was he planning? Did he want my dice? No, that couldn't be it, he already had teleportation according to Dongtae. So what else could it be? I was desperate to know and when he didn't answer immediately I asked again, my voice clearly strained with unconstrained emotions. I was feeling a thousand different things yet again. Pain and betrayal over the way he'd killed our friends, bitterness that he'd only pretended to be friends with us, sad and angry that he didn't seem at all bothered by his past, and something else that I could not describe.

He sighed and then looked down before asking, “Why do you think I'm here?”

“I don't know.” I answered standing up and balling my fist.

“Either tell me what you want now or leave already. I don't want to talk to you.” I said forcefully. Mooyoung looked at me and seemed to smile before also standing up. He started walking towards me and stopped only when he was a few inches away from me, too close for comfort, I stepped back and tripped, falling back into the chair I'd been sitting in. He leaned forward placing his hands on either side of the armrests and looking me straight in the eyes, his hair out of the way for once, allowing me to look at his red eyes.

“Taebin, let's form a team.” He finally said.

********************************************************************

Startled by the close proximity I couldn't process his words at first. Then I realized what he'd just said. He was asking to form a team with me? What the heck? Why did he want to do that? And what made him think I'd do that? I clearly remembered what happened last time; we were all a team and he betrayed us. There was no way I could forgive him for that; much less trust him a second time. What was he really after?

“Are you serious?” I questioned in a dead tone.

“Absolutely.” He replied immediately.

“No.” I stated.

“Why not?”

“What makes you think I would join you after what happened last time?”

He didn't answer at first, he seemed to be thinking, weighing his words carefully. Finally he shrugged.

“Just figured you would from what you said last time.” he answered.

Immediately I felt my face heat up, I knew exactly what he meant. It was that stupid quest X had given me saying something like 'confess your feelings for Mooyoung XD'. That quest had seriously been so absurd, I tried many times to convince myself that X was playing with me, but no matter how I looked at it, it felt like he was asking me to confess romantically, even though he told me it could mean just as friends. Either way, that didn't matter anymore, I no longer even thought of Mooyoung as a friend.

“Why are you bringing that up now?! And it isn't like that! It was completely platonic!” I sputtered, looking down, trying really hard to calm down and not ramble.

“I never said anything about it not being platonic...” he said without much conviction.

“You implied it!” I said rather loudly still blushing furiously.

“Hmm...no I'm sure you just assumed.” He said sarcastically. My face felt almost as if it was on fire, I'd had enough.

“Enough! Get out!” I yelled pulling out of the chair and pushing him away. Mooyoung looked surprised for a second before he regained his composure.

“All jokes aside, I meant it, join me; form a team with me.” he said.

“No. I don't trust you, you'll betray our new team again.”

“No one else will be in this team. It will just be you and me.”

That caught me by surprise, I had been sure that there would be more members. I figured he'd already recruited people. Now he was saying he wanted it to be just be us two? What was up with that? I honestly couldn't figure him out.

“Why would you want to form a team with only me?” I asked.

“Because you know what we have to do to win. This time there are enough die for more than one winner. If I form a team with only one other person, we can work together to collect all the die much more efficiently. Also since it's only going to be us two, you can be sure I won't betray you. Instead I'd be helping you win.” He explained.

I paused to think about what he said, it was true that we'd be able to get die faster working as a team of two, and he wouldn't betray me since there were supposed to be two winners...but it didn't feel right. Something was off, the Mooyoung I knew wouldn't be making such an offer without some personal gain. Behind his mask and cool demeanor I knew that he was scheming, he wanted something out of this deal. There must be a reason that he was choosing to team up with me, and until I knew what it was I wouldn't be able to trust him at all.

“My answer is still no.” I say, walking towards the door and opening it, motioning for him to leave.

Mooyoung looked disappointed by my response, and as he walked towards me he frowned.

“Don't think I've accepted that answer. I will persuade you to join me, Taebin.” He stated before leaving, closing the door behind him.

***********************************************************************

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and tell me what you think so far pretty please?? :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mooyoung is very crafty like always.

It had been over an hour since Mooyoung had left, yet I kept on thinking about our short conversation. At first I didn't understand any of what had happened, but now that I thought about it, I suppose I did understand why Mooyoung would have come and asked me to join him. He'd always been more friendly with me; after all I was the first one he'd saved. Also we definitely had some sort of bond and even after his betrayal it wasn't gone. Also I did know a lot about the dice, way more than the rest of the school. I already had one special dice, one that Mooyoung also already had making it more likely for me to believe he wouldn't betray me. Now that I'd thought about I understood what Mooyoung had been thinking, he'd believed that I would be able to overlook our past for a little bit just until I got what I wanted.

However he'd been wrong to think that. I couldn't forget the past, it haunted me even now. There was a scar on my heart that wouldn't heal, it ran deep and I doubted it would ever heal. And the cause of it was Mooyoung. It would take a while and a lot of repenting on his part before I ever trusted him again. I glanced at the clock, realizing it was getting late I went to sleep. I'd think about this later, and deal with Mooyoung at another time. I knew he'd been serious, he was going to come back and try to persuade me.

**********************************************************************

** Mooyoung's POV **

After I'd left Taebin's place, I was feeling conflicted. The response I'd gotten from him hadn't been all that unpredictable, but...I still wish it had gone well. Currently I had no other ideas on how I was going to get him to join me but I knew I would find a way with time. I sighed as I reached the place where I was staying at for the time being. It was the home of a family-friend. They had moved away recently but hadn't managed to sell the house, so until they did I had been granted permission to stay there.

As I crashed onto the sofa after grabbing an orange I continued thinking about Taebin. It really had been a long time since I'd seen him. I was glad to see him after all this time despite the way we met. He still looked like the same Taebin who'd run away from me feeling betrayed. I wish he'd never seen that, but I knew there was no way to avoid it. To challenge X I had to obtain all six die and in the process of obtaining them I'd seriously hurt those people we'd called friends..or at least he'd called friends. To me they'd just been the means to an end. At first Taebin had been the same as them, a means to an end, but along the way... my feelings for him had changed and I found myself enjoying his company.

To be honest, the day he'd told me that he liked me had made me feel happy. I wanted to respond to him at the time, but I'd been both surprised and hadn't had the time since X had whisked me away. Taebin probably had no idea how I felt, and I had worried that his feeling would have changed by the time I'd find him again. Thankfully though, they hadn't; I was sure of that. The way he'd reacted when I'd mentioned it, proved it all. He might not have realized it himself, but he still liked me, despite our bad past. While thinking my desolate thoughts I eventually fell asleep.

The next morning I awoke to an alarm blaring from my phone. I turned off the alarm and looked at the time. Shoot! I was late! I had decided to enroll at that stupid school Taebin was going to, I'd even managed to get my schedule to coincide with his. Truthfully I didn't care that I'd be late, what I cared about was that would lessen the time that I could try and talk to him; that's the only reason I was hurrying.

I rushed with my morning routine, and started jogging to the school. Once there I started looking for the class I was suppose to be in, I ended up going in just before the bell rang. There were a lot of empty seats in the classroom, and those that were filled didn't seem interested in being there. As soon as I stepped in though all eyes turned to me. I knew I stood out but didn't care, they only one I really cared about to stare at me was looking at me with a delightful expression. Taebin looked so surprised to see me, his mouth even hung open, and his eyes were wide. I had to stifle my urge to smile, as I excused myself for being late and introduced myself before taking a seat in the desk next to him.

**********************************************************************


	4. Chapter 4

**Taebin's POV**

What in the world was he doing here? I had not expected this, of all the things he'd could have decided to do, join our school was not one of the things I'd considered. For a person like him, school was a waste of time. He'd rather be out obtaining dice, I knew that for a fact. So why was he here? This question didn't subside for the rest of class. I was too intent on trying to figure out the answer that I almost didn't hear Eunju calling my name.

“Are you alright?” she asked concerned when I'd finally realized she was addressing me.

“Uh....yea, fine. Sorry to have troubled you.” I quickly replied, faking a smile at her. I noticed Mooyoung frown from my peripheral vision as he got up and went towards the door. He caught my eyes before leaving and motioned for me to follow. I was half tempted to ignore that request, but decided I might as well, after all I needed some questions answered. I excused myself to Eunju, and then walked out of the room. Mooyoung was waiting right outside the door. He smiled as I came out and said for me to follow him. He lead me to the vacant rooftop where he leaned against the railings, his back to me. After a moment of silence, I finally spoke up.

“Why'd you call me out here? And why are you even here as a student no less?” I asked my voice strained.

Mooyoung didn't turn around, he simply ignored me and asked me something completely random.

“Are you dating that girl?”

“What?”

“That girl you were talking to. Eun...whatever.”

“No, we broke up. Why do you ask? And don't just ignore my questions!”

“Hmm...”

He still didn't answer me, and that irritated me.

“Are you going to always be like this now? You don't answer any of my questions at all!” I yelled, frustrated. Still Mooyoung didn't answer me, he just stood with his back to me not having turned around once. Sighing heavily, I decided to leave, since it was obvious that he wasn't going to tell me anything.

“Wait...” I heard Mooyoung say as I was leaving.

“What is it now?” I asked as I turned back around. Mooyoung had decided to also turn around and was now facing me at least. He stayed silent for a few more seconds before finally speaking.

“I'll answer your questions....but in exchange will you join me?” he asked. I was taken aback, sure I wanted answers, but I wasn't desperate enough for them to join him. I shook my head and said I didn't need answers before trying to leave once again.

“Wait! Stop trying to go already, why do you wanna leave so badly?” he asked sounding a bit irritated.

“I don't wanna talk to you for longer than I have to.” I answered not stopping. I opened the door to leave, but as soon as I did, Mooyoung slammed it close from behind me. Great, he'd probably used time pause to get here so fast. I moved away from him quickly wondering why he'd done that. He wasn't going to let me leave...was he trying to pick a fight right now? Is that why he wasn't letting me leave?

“What gives?” I said becoming angry.

“What do I have to do to get you to agree to join me? I've already said it, but I won't betray you this time, I promise you that. What else do you want from me?” he asked.

I contemplated the many things I could have said to that. There were a million things I could have asked him to do to get me to join him, but among them all, I choose to just say this.

“I want you to tell me why you did it. Why did you kill them all!”

*********************************************************************

**Mooyoung's POV**

I had been expecting a lot of demands from Taebin, not a plea for an explanation. I actually didn't know how to respond to him. What was the best way to explain without having him hate me more was actually what I needed to know. I contemplated how to answer for a while, and while I did I noticed Taebin grow more and more angry as he sprouted on about how I shouldn't have killed them. I was only half listening to be honest, I was more worried about how I should respond.

“Tell me already! I want to know!” he exclaimed, his patience wearing thin after all the yelling he'd done.

I sighed and asked, “Is there any other way you'd agree to join me?”

“No.” came his answer. Well there goes all hope of avoiding this. I didn't really have a good excuse for what I'd done.

“You should already know why I did it.”

“Was it really all just to challenge X? To change the world? Is that really your petty excuse for killing them?” Taebin asked with a voice that clearly indicated his hatred for me.

“Yes.”

“.....I don't believe you. I know there's something more. What did you even want to do with the power to change the world?!”

Taebin wasn't completely wrong, but I also didn't know if I was ready to tell him; or more like willing to tell him, and so I stayed silent. Taebin waited a while and then with an angry look told me to move out of the way. I did not want to anger him more. Just before he left he said, “When you feel like telling me the truth, then and only then I'll join you.” With that being said, he disappeared into the building as the bell rang signaling the beginning of the next class period.

***********************************************************************   

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Mooyoung's POV**

  I didn’t return to class, despite the fact I’d only decided to enroll here to be close to Taebin, I decided that right now wasn’t the time to be close to him. I sighed as I contemplated what I should do about him. I actually hadn’t expected it to be this hard for him to forgive me. I guess those friends meant a lot to him….maybe more than me? I shook my head, disregarding that thought. No, Taebin would eventually forgive me, I’d make sure of that, I’d definitely find a way.

       “What’s with that face? -.- “ X asked out of nowhere. I looked at my phone and smiled.

       “What do you mean? What kind of face am I making?”

       “*shrugs* I’m not sure \\(>.<)/ it’s just not an expression I see on you usually.”

       “That’s cause it’s a new emotion for me.”

       “If you say so >.> anyway want some new quests?? XD”

       I sighed at that, “Might as well go on a few before you decide to spice things up.”

       With that being said, I got up and left school while looking at the new quests X had given me. Most of them seemed trivial but I did them anyway. It was nearly sunset when I finished up most of the quests and came upon a quest that interested me.

       “Really X?” I asked looking at the quest as I walked down an ally.

       “XD why not? Though I don’t completely comprehend human emotions, I can tell this is what you want. ^w^”

       “So this is my desire right now?” I asked looking at the quest. X didn’t reply and I hadn’t expected him to. I put away my phone and trudged on with a smile upon my face.

       *********************************************************************************************

**Taebin’s POV**

       After leaving Mooyoung on the rooftop I hadn’t seen him all day. He’d apparently decided to ditch the rest of his classes. I wondered where he’d gone but didn’t dwell on it too long. After school, a few of my friends invited me to hang out and so I did. While we walked around town, I noticed many of my classmates loitering around the city, all on their phones. They were probably doing quests. I frowned at thinking about just how many people in our school had become obsessed with gathering dice. I really wished it hadn’t spread so much. Things were getting crazy in this city, and I knew that they were only going to get crazier.

       “Hey Taebin, you’ve been a dicer for a while, haven’t you?” asked one of my friends. I looked up at them somewhat surprised.

       “Yea…”

       “Hmm, so you know a lot about dice right?”

       “Um I know about the same as you guys” I said faking a laugh.

       “I see, anyway why aren’t you out on a quest like everyone else?”

       “I could ask you the same thing.”

       “Ah, I have plenty of dice stalked up, I don’t even know what to use them for right now. So I have no need for more quests right now. Same with everyone else here. So what about you?”

       “Hmm, I suppose it’s the same for me.”

       They nodded and continued talking about random topics. We spent most of the day out just wandering about, and stopping by a fast food restaurant to eat when we got hungry. Near sunset we all went our separate ways.

       While walking home my phone rang with a new quest. I looked at it then questioned X.

       “What is this?”

       “Another quest! XD”

       “A rankers have to join? We don’t have a choice whatsoever?”

       “Nooopppeee :P”

       “I’m guessing the whole schools going to be involved in this huh?”

       “Yep J”

       I sighed looking at the choices I had to pick from, either be on the attack or defense. Well there was also the option of being neutral. I put away my phone deciding to pick later, as I pulled out my key and opened the door to my house.

       Once inside I locked the door and crashed on the sofa while picking up the remote to turn on the TV. While flipping through the channels something bright caught my eye. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a special die, the one for telekinesis. My eyes widened, how did this get here?! I looked besides where I’d found the dice and noticed there was a note.

       “Take this as a token of faith. I really am not going to betray you, we’ll split the dice between us evenly. Just trust me. Anyway, see ya at school tomorrow.” – Mooyoung

       ********************************************************************************************

       I stared at the note for a long time, unable to comprehend what was going on in Mooyoung’s mind. Why would he give me this dice? There was not guarantee I’d join him just because of this, and I was half tempted to just return the dice to him and reject him once more. I sighed realizing the bigger question was actually, how in the world had he gotten into my house? Did I leave a window open or something? I got up and checked all the windows, finally finding one slightly open. Looks like I had left a window open. Well that answered that question.

       I went back to the living room and picked up the dice, after inspecting it a while longer I finally rolled it, claiming ownership of it.

       “Congratz Taebin! You got another special die! XD” X exclaimed.

       “Hmm…”

       “You not happy about this? L” X asked.

       “No…that’s not it…I’m just confused.” I sighed.

       “Well you should be happy. Looks like Mooyoung meant everything he said! ^.^”

       “Maybe….” I replied. X gave me another smiley face and didn’t say anything. I got up and decided to go to sleep. I’d talk to Mooyoung tomorrow and finally make up my mind on joining him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taebin finally decides to join Mooyoung.

**Taebin's POV**

The next day I was late to school, I’d forgotten to set my alarm and so I had woken up late. I didn’t even get the chance to pick a side for the battle that was supposed to take place today, and so I’d ended up being neutral. Dongtae was probably going to be mad at me for that, he’d left a voicemail asking me to pick defense, and I’d listened to it this morning on the way to school. And despite all these things, the thing most on my mind was Mooyoung. I wondered what he’d plan to do. I knew he had definitely gotten this quest and he was bound to have picked attack.

       Finally I reached the school gates and as soon as I did I saw students running about. Looks like no one was in class. I quickly looked around to see if I knew anyone there and finding no one I pulled out my phone.

       “X, what’s going on?”

       “The battle already started! You’re late!! >.<”

       “Yea, yea, sorry about that. What am I supposed to do?”

       “Well you picked neutral, so it’s up to you. You can change it by going on the offense or defense side now and helping them out, though even if the side you help wins, you won’t really get that much since you failed to make a decision early on.”

       “Okay…”

       I looked around again trying to figure out what I should do. Finally I decided to find Dongtae and help his team out.

       *******************************************************************************************

       The battle had been tense, we barely managed to win. I ended up with a lot more dice which was good since things were heating up. All the A rankers were starting to attack each other for the special die. During the battle I had seen Mooyoung a few times, but we didn’t cross paths for which I was grateful, who knows what would have happened if we had to go against each other; especially with him constantly asking me to join him.

       As I left school, I saw Mooyoung waiting by the gate. Once I got there he greeted me.

       “Yo.”

       “….”

       “Come on, you’re not going to say hi?”

       “Hi.”

       “That’s sounded dreary. Anyway mind if I walk with you?”

       “…” I didn’t say anything and started walking. Mooyoung walked beside me, not saying anything until we reached my house.

       “Hey, have you decided to join me yet?” He asked.

       “Maybe…”

       “Hmm…that’s not a clear answer.”

       “I…yea, I’ll join you…”

       Mooyoung stopped walking and pulled me to a stop as well, turning me to face him. His eyes were wide as he asked, “Really?”

       I nodded before saying, “But I have a few conditions.”

       “…what are they?”

       “First, I want you to tell me exactly what dice you have and how many. Second, if I ever feel like you’re going to betray me, I’m going to leave here without warning. Third, I still want to know why you want to challenge X so badly. And last of all, I want to know why you want to team up with me so badly.”

       Mooyoung stayed silent for a while before answering, “I can grant you three of those conditions.”

       I raised an eyebrow and asked which ones.

       “I won’t answer why I want to challenge X. Not now anyway. Someday maybe, or if I have to for you to join, I’ll promise I will tell you later.”

       I thought about it for a moment, did I really need him to tell me why he wanted to challenge X right now? No, I didn’t. I really wanted to know, but as long as he told me someday, I could wait.

       “Fine. Tell me later, but you have to tell me before we collect all the dice.”

       Mooyoung smiled and then without warning hugged me. I was so surprised at first I didn’t react, and before I could he let go of me.

       “You won’t regret this. Now come on, I’ll answer your questions once we get inside.”

       ***************************************************************************************************

**Mooyoung’s POV**

       I was really glad that Taebin had finally decided to join me. I was overflowing with joy, and my smile wasn’t fading anytime soon it seemed. Taebin opened the door and we both went in. I set my stuff down and sat down on the sofa, and Taebin decided to sit in the sofa across from me. He waited a minute before asking me to answer his question.

       “Ok, well I have a lot of die, probably around 100, as for the special dice, I have collected 4 so far, teleportation, psychokinesis, flight, and time pause as you know. I gave you the other telekinesis I had. And I know the two people who have clocking, the other one who has flight, and I’m sure you also know who has time pause.”

       “Yea… you planning to attack them?”

       “Soon.”

       “…..ok, go on.”

       “Well that’s it for dice; I still don’t know who has clairvoyance, do you?”

       Taebin shook his head and told me to answer his other question.

       “Ok, well what were the other conditions again?”

       “The second one was if I ever felt like you were going to betray me I’d leave without warning.”

       “I suppose that’s only fair… but I mean it, I’m not going to betray you.”

       He shrugged nonchalantly, making it obvious he didn’t trust me completely. That made me a little sad, but I knew I would be able to prove it to him when we won the game.

       “The other condition was you tell me why you wanted me to join you.” He continued

       “Didn’t I already say that the first time I asked you?” I asked

       “I believe there is more to it.”

       “Hmm….” I contemplated on what I should say to him. It never ceased to amaze me how insightful he was, even before he’d used the dice he’d been insightful. As long as his emotions weren’t controlling him he could always tell if someone was hiding something. The fact he didn’t see through me the first time was probably because he had been so grateful to me for saving him and introducing the dice to him.

       I got up and walked over to where he was and sat down beside him, he moved away to the edge of the sofa. I faced him and looked him in the eyes before answering him.

       “The main reason I was so persistent is because I like you.” I said measuring out my words so he understood. Instantly his face lit up with a blush.

       “What are you talking about?” he asked.

       “You told me you liked me, I don’t care if it was for a quest, I wanted it to be true. I started liking you way before you’d told me that. And those feelings haven’t changed.”

       “……..”

       “And I’m pretty sure that my feelings are mutual.”

       Again Taebin stayed silent, his face very flustered. It was fun watching his expression, he was so red.

       “So Taebin, are you going to admit that you like me to, or am I going to have to coax it out of you?” I asked leaning in closer to him. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, so he closed it and looked away from me. I let out a small laugh, before leaning in closer until we were only inches apart.

       “Wh…what are you doing?” Taebin asked clearly surprised with the very close proximity.

       “Something I’ve wanted to do for a while.” I whispered before completely closing the distance.

       The kiss was sweet. Taebin was caught completely off guard but he didn’t resist. I licked his lips seeking entrance. At first he didn’t grant it, but then he slowly opened his mouth, and so I slipped my tongue in, exploring his. We fought for dominance and I eventually won. The kiss lasted a few more seconds before we finally broke apart. It had been pure bliss for me, and seeing his tomato red face made it all the more sweet.


	7. Chapter 7

**Taebin’s POV**

       My face was very flushed as I thought about what had just happened. Did we just…kiss? I couldn’t control my thoughts as they were all over the place, very surprised by the kiss. Did he really like me? Did I even like him? Were my feelings actually not platonic like I thought they’d been? What was I going to do now?! My thoughts continued to race as Mooyoung let out another small laugh. I looked at him trying to discern any lies. But Mooyoung was smiling looking very happy by what had just happened.

       Suddenly dice appeared beside Mooyoung as his phone rang. That immediately dampened my mood. It all had been just for a quest? He’d tricked me? Why?! Why would he do that just for a quest? I suddenly felt very upset and heartbroken. Just as I was about to speak and tell him to leave, Mooyoung spoke up.

       “Don’t misunderstand. I do like you, and would have kissed you anyway even it hadn’t been for a quest. Think of it as like when you confessed. You wanted to and eventually did, but it wasn’t really for the quest, was it?”

       I didn’t respond, he was right, but how did I know that he meant what he said?

       “And just to prove it…” he leaned in again stealing another kiss. Again I was surprised though not as much as the first time. He deepened the kiss, and again I found myself enjoying it. This time the kiss was filled with more passion and lasted longer. We explored each other’s mouth and fought for dominance more than once. Finally we pulled away again, a thin trail of saliva connected our lips, as we both gasped for air greedily. This time, both of our faces were flushed. I stared at Mooyoung with a new sense of understanding. He meant it. He liked me.

       “So do you believe me now? Or do I need to do that again?” He asked with a mischievous grin. I shook my head, I believed him now, there’s no way he’d have done that twice if it had really been just for a quest.

       “Well I’m glad you believe me, but I’m still doing it again.” He stated and once again we kissed. This one was filled with even more passion and felt amazing. I found that my hands had made their way to his hair without me having realized, they explored his body. His hands were also roaming my body, exploring it.

       It ended up being a long make out session that finally ended when Mooyoung noticed the time and said he should leave since we both had school tomorrow, and that X had mentioned to him there was going to be another quest going on. I agreed with him, and showed him out before retiring to my room.

       I laid down in my bed, recalling everything that had happened today. Thinking bout Mooyoung kept me up for a while, but I finally did manage to fall asleep.

       ****************************************************************************************

       The next morning I was a bit nervous to go to school. The cause of it: Mooyoung. I didn’t know how to act around him anymore. After yesterday’s events, I didn’t exactly know how I was supposed to look him in the face and not blush.

       I entered the classroom, quickly glancing around to see if Mooyoung was there yet. Thankfully, he wasn’t. I sighed in relief, not sure I was ready to face him, but that relief was short lived.

       “Hey Taebin.” Mooyoung said from behind me, putting his arm around my shoulders and smiling, “What’s up?” he asked.

       I felt my face heat up a little upon seeing his face as I stuttered out my response, “Uh…hi.”

       He took his arm off my shoulders as we made our way to our seats. Mooyoung was acting normal, though I did notice his face flush a little whenever we’d stare at each other. I noticed that Mooyoung had made some friends here…or did he? People went over to talk to him throughout the day, but… it wasn’t much different from back then. Mooyoung was still distant and only spoke when spoken to. He spent most of his time pretending to pay attention to class, and talking to me about random meaningless things for the most part.

       Around lunch time everyone’s phones rang with a message from X. A new school wide quest yet again. What was up with all these quests I wondered. The latest quest was a scavenger hunt.

       “Taebin you finished reading the details?” Mooyoung came over and asked me. I nodded still staring at my phone, trying to decipher the riddles that were supposed to lead us to the objects.

       “Alright, so any idea what these riddles mean?”

       “Not exactly, but I’ve got a few ideas for a few of them.”

       “Well then, let’s not waste any time. Come on!” Mooyoung said grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the classroom.

       “So what are the theories you have in mind?” Mooyoung asked once we’d come to a stop in an empty music room.

       “Well, for the first riddle I think what it’s describing is the location we’re supposed to go to. And the location, if I’m reading this right, is the teacher’s lounge.”

       “Hmm…now that I think about it, you’re probably right. So the next riddle would be telling us the object we’re supposed to look for?”

       “Yea. That’s what I’m guessing. However, I’m also pretty sure that some of the other students have already figured this out and so I’m thinking we should go ahead and look for the second or third object.”

       “Ok, so you don’t even want to try to look for the first one?”

       “No, I’m pretty sure there are already students who’ve figured it out and are now fighting for the object as we speak.”

       Mooyoung didn’t say anything just looked out the window and frowned.

       “Well it looks like you're right yet again.” He said pointing out the window. I looked to see that we were right across from the teachers’ lounge, and sure enough the place was packed with kids fighting over something.

       “So where do you think the third object’s location is? It’s the fifth riddle right?” Mooyoung asked.

       I sighed and looked at my phone shaking my head, “I don’t know what that one means. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

       Mooyoung and I continued to discuss the riddles, and finally we managed to decode a few of them and so we rushed to their locations. The third one we were able to get fairly easily since only one other group had figured it out and we beat them to it. The fourth one we’d given up on, and so we’d decoded the fifth object and rushed to its location. There we met a lot more trouble. The fifth object was a ribbon that had been tied to a basketball hoop in the gym long ago. When we’d entered the gym, there was already a lot of people there fighting for the ribbon. Mooyoung quickly grabbed my hand and used time pause. He looked at me and then we both sprang into action, not having to discuss what we needed to. He went for the ladder that one of the kids was holding while I prepared myself to fight the kid since he’d soon find himself unfrozen from time pause.

       The kid was so confused at first when he noticed everyone around him frozen but got over the shock and started resisting. I managed to help Mooyoung get the ladder out of his hands and keep his attention focused on me. I knocked him out fairly quickly while Mooyoung got the ribbon. We then left and Mooyoung stopped using his time pause. Immediately all the frozen kids were back in action, not having realized the ribbon was gone.

       After this we proceeded to find the sixth object and again managed to snag it without to much effort and then we made our way to the location of the seventh and final object. We knew it was somewhere on the soccer field but weren’t quite sure what the object was. When we got to the field we found that we weren’t the only ones there. The whole school was practically there, all shoving each other and looking for the final object.

       While Mooyoung tried to go and talk to people to find out what the final object was, I continued to try and figure out what the riddle meant. After thinking about it, I made my way over to the goal post, which surprisingly wasn’t crowded. There was only one person standing nearby it when I got there. As I started examining it, looking for anything that wouldn’t usually be there, the person standing next to it spoke up.

       “There’s no point looking here, I already did. There’s nothing here.”

       I ignored them and continued looking, and then I saw something circular and dull. It looked like an old ring, suddenly the riddle made sense. The answer was an old ring!

       “I found it!” I exclaimed going to grab it. Sadly I’d forgotten the person who’d been standing beside me and as soon as the words had left my mouth I found myself being punched in the face and knocked backwards. My hand flew to my cheek, which throbbed in pain, but I ignored it and attacked the guy who’d attacked me. I swung my fist at his stomach, but he dodged before kicking me in the side, causing me to fall off balance. But I quickly regained my footing and lunged at him, throwing a kick of my own. It made contact with his stomach and he doubled over. But before long he recovered and tried to land another punch. I sidestepped but he’d predicted that and so did a back kick, landing it on my lower abdomen and making me fall back into the goal post, right next to the ring. He realized what he’d done, and quickly tried to stop me as I reached for the ring. He pulled me back as he tried to get me away from the ring, but I kicked at him and caused him to fall backwards, I quickly moved forward and grabbed the ring. With that, the quest ended.

Everyone got a message from X saying the scavenger hunt was over. The guy who I’d been fighting looked so mad. I got up from the ground feeling sore from the beating. The guy still looked like he wanted to fight and so I readied myself for an attack. Just as he was about to punch me yet again, Mooyoung showed up and stopped him.

“The games over kid! Beat it before I kill you!” He exclaimed and shoved the guy away. The guy looked afraid by the prospect of fighting both of us and so he scampered away muttering under his breath about how he’d get even.

“Thanks…” I said to Mooyoung. He glanced at me and examined me. Then he said we should ditch the rest of our classes and go home. I was about to argue, but one look from his silenced me.

“You’re hurt. We’re going home, there’s no need to stick around. Now come on, let’s go to your house.” He said.


	8. Chapter 8

**Mooyoung’s POV**

       We walked to Taebin’s place in silence. I was silently fuming about the quest, I’d been careless and ended up losing sight of Taebin while the quest was going on. Then when I finally found him the quest had ended and I see some kid beating him up. Honestly it was a miracle I hadn’t harmed that kid. I wanted to beat him up so much but had refrained on account that Taebin probably wouldn’t have appreciated it.

       Finally we arrived at Taebin’s house, he opened the door and ushered me inside to the living room.

“Hey we should get you patched up first shouldn’t we?” I asked as he started to sit down. He shook his head and said, “There’s nothing to patch up, I’m not bleeding. I just got a few bruises.”

“Well you could at least put some ointment on.” I mumbled.

“No need.” He stated and got up.

He then preceded to the kitchen from where he asked me to choose from a variety of food options, since we’d skipped lunch as well as our classes.

       “Whatever you want to make is good with me.” I answered him, as I began to flip through the channels on the TV. Taebin didn’t respond, but I heard him shuffling about gathering ingredients and starting up the stove. After a few minutes I decided to go see if I could help out. I entered the kitchen and saw Taebin mixing things on the stove while a cutting board lay beside him on the counter. He glanced back at me once, acknowledging my presence but didn’t say anything.

       “Need any help?” I asked coming to stand next to him.

       “Not really, but if you’d like you could finish cutting those for the salad.” He answered.

       I looked at the cutting board and then began cutting the tomatoes on it, then the cucumbers and other things. Meanwhile Taebin finished up whatever concoction he was cooking on the stove and set it on the table along with the plates. I finished cutting the stuff on the counter and placed them in a bowl bringing that to the table as well. Doing this reminded me of the past, we’d done something like this many times before, and now doing this again, made me feel nostalgic.

       “Looks like we’re done.” Taebin said after placing the spoons down. We both took a seat across from each other and then began eating. The food was good, which is what I’d expected. Taebin was a good cook whether that was from the dice or just natural talent I had yet to figure out. After we finished eating, I put away the leftovers and cleaned up while Taebin did the dishes.

       As I was putting away the knife it slipped out of my hand and I accidently ended up cutting my hand. Taebin noticed the blood coming from my finger immediately and rushed over.

       “You should be more careful!” he exclaimed, as he pulled me to the bathroom, from where he pulled out a first aid kit. He took my hand again and started disinfecting the cut, that stung and I nearly pulled away but his grip was firm not allowing me to do so. He then placed a band aid around the cut and glared at me. I looked away at first then looked back at his face. I noticed the bruise on his face growing a little purple and I sighed.

       “I’m not the only one who needs to be more careful.” I muttered as I took the first aid kit from him, and pulled out the antibiotics. I pulled his face closer to me and applied the ointment to his face before putting gauze over it.

       “Now let me see the other bruises.” I said as I placed more ointment on my finger. Taebin hesitated before lifting his shirt off to reveal his bruised stomach and side. Angry red marks that were slowly turning purple and black littered his abdomen. This irritated me, he hadn’t told me the extent of the damage, and so I’d assumed it had been minimal and that was why he didn’t bother letting me patch him up. Looking at him now though, I knew I was wrong to think that. I shouldn’t have let him deter me from doing this.

       “You really are irresponsible when it comes to yourself.” I said angrily.

       “Just look at all those bruises! And to think you’d planned to leave them untreated!” I exclaimed applying the ointment to each bruise and then placing the gauze over it.

       “It’s not as bad as it looks…” Taebin said uncertainly.

       I glared at him, not believing him for a second.

       “Don’t even bother lying. You should have done this the second you got home!”

       “…..sorry.”

       I didn’t say anything to that, furious with him and myself. After I finished addressing all his bruises, I ran my hands along his chest. Taebin didn’t move as I moved my fingers along his chest and to his abdomen. I looked at him, his face was slightly flushed, and this turned me on. I leaned in and kissed him softly. After a few seconds Taebin initiated the first step and ran his tongue along my lips asking for entrance, to which I gladly gave in. He explored my mouth as if it was his first time doing so. Our tongues danced alongside each other as we became dazed in passion.

       Taebin tugged at the edge of my shirt, causing me to shift my attention to his hands. He wanted me to take off my shirt as well it seemed. And so I pulled away from the kiss and obliged him. I took off my shirt and smirked at him. He stared at my chest, more precisely at the tattoo that was there. He seemed to admire the phoenix shaped tattoo I had as he ran his fingers along it. I smiled and then we began making out once more.


	9. Chapter 9

**Mooyoung's POV**

Yesterday I had stayed at Taebin’s house all day and had even slept over, to say that nothing had happened would be lying. We had our fun and raveled in each other’s company. I left the next morning saying I had things to do and that I’d be back later on. Taebin seemed a tad disappointed that I was leaving but didn’t stop me.

       Now I was on my way to meet with a few accomplices I had, they were helping me gather information on the players and what dice they had. I had formed this little group with the intent to gather all the information I could and have some help gathering the special dice, but in the end I’d be betraying them. I couldn’t let any of them keep the special die, I needed them for my and Taebin. I knew Taebin wouldn’t like this, and so I hadn’t told him about it. As long as I could keep him in the dark, I was planning to do just that. All he had to do was stay by my side, and we’d be fine.

       “Mooyoung?”

       I turned around and saw one of the girls who were in that group I’d formed. I couldn’t remember her name so I just nodded at her and asked what she wanted.

       “Oh nothing. You’re heading to the meeting place aren’t you?”

       “Yea.”

       “So am I.”

       “I figured.”

       “Of course you did…” she laughed nervously as we both continued walking. She tried to make small talk until we reached the abandoned building we were using as a hideout. The other three members were already there. We all discussed what we’d learned about the other players from the quests we’d been on recently and who had what dice. The only useful tidbits I got from the meeting was that the cloaking die had switched hands, and that this girl named Mio probably had clairvoyance. I wondered if I should pay her a visit to confirm this information, but decided against it for now. The meeting drew to an end and I left to go on a few quests before going back to Taebin’s place.

       “Wait Mooyoung!” someone called from behind me, it was that girl again. I sighed wondering what she wanted now as I gave her an irritated glare. Upon seeing my glare, she hesitated then let out a breath before coming closer and talking again.

       “I…was wondering if you…wanted to hang out for a while maybe?”

       “No.” I stated plainly and started walking away. She continued to follow me and asked if I’d be free to hang out later. I was getting really irritated that she wasn’t leaving me alone and was about to blow off on her when she suddenly kicked me in the head hard and knocked me out.

       ******************************************************************************

**Taebin’s POV**

       Since it was a Saturday and Mooyoung had already left after we’d eaten breakfast together I decided to go on some quests. While on them I ended up bumping into Dongtae and Eunju. They invited me to hang out but I declined and went on with my quests. But now a new question plagued my mind, were those two dating? I decided I’d ask Eunju later on since I was a bit curious. I’d be glad if the two of them were dating, I knew I’d broken her heart when I’d broken up with her. When I had dated her I had really tried to like her but never could in that way, I only saw her as a friend and so I hoped she had moved on from me.

       “Hey Taebin want a special quest? ^-^” X suddenly asked.

       “Special quest?” I asked.

       “Well… not really special, but interesting. At least I’m sure it will be for you~”

       “Hmmm…what do you have in mind?”

       X gave me the details of the quest and it seemed somewhat odd. Apparently I needed to go to an abandoned building and help someone escape. X wouldn’t specify who, but told me it was someone I knew.

       “Fine, I’ll take the quest.” I said wondering who it was I needed to help. I hurried to the location X had told me to go to, and once there I examined the place. It was an abandoned factory of some sort, I was guessing a clothing factory from all the stray pieces of fabric and string. The building looked old and I was afraid it would collapse very soon. It was about three stories tall and the walls of the place were rotten and gave off a foul odor. I crinkled my nose as I entered the building looking around.

       “Where am I supposed to go X?” I asked him quietly hoping I hadn’t caught anyone’s attention.

       “Go to the third floor there should be stairs straight ahead and to the right.”

       I found the staircase and made my way up the stairs as quietly as possible.

       “Ok on the third floor go to the fourth door and you should find who you need to rescue.” X said and then mentioned he’d not be helping anymore. I sighed and went to the place he’d directed me. At the door, I hesitated. I leaned my ear against it to listen. There were two hushed voices talking, but I couldn’t make them out. With one final sigh, I steeled myself and opened the door.

       *****************************************************************************

       Upon entering the room I noticed a few things. First, Mooyoung was tied up and gagged.

Second, there were actually four people here besides Mooyoung. Third, I didn’t really care about those people.

       My eyes solely focused on Mooyoung. What in the world was he doing here?! Was he the one I was supposed to save? My mind was pounding out questions at the speed of light as I tried to grasp the situation as best as I could.

       “Hey! Who are you?” one of the people asked. I looked up to see who had spoken. It was a blond haired girl. Beside her stood a tall buff looking guy. The two people past them looked like they were brother and sister with their brown hair and blue eyes. I debated what I should say and then finally decided that I should just get Mooyoung out of here as fast as I could. I used teleport and landed myself next to Mooyoung and quickly used my pocket knife to cut through the rope securing his hands. He pulled off the tape covering his mouth and thanked me.

       “By the way, what are you doing here?” He asked. I was about to answer but suddenly I saw a table being flung at him.

       “Look out!” I said and pushed him away right on time, we both landed on the ground harshly, me on top of him. I blushed slightly at the positioning but pulled myself off right away.

       “We need to get out of here before we talk!” I exclaimed as I pulled him up and used teleport again. I landed behind the blond girl and as she was turning around kicked her side. She crumpled to the ground as the buff looking guy advanced towards me. The brown haired girl was the one using telekinesis and so she started hurling stuff towards me, and I tried dodging both her attacks and the buff guy. I glanced at Mooyoung to see he wasn’t fairing any better. The brown haired boy was using cloaking probably since I could see him and Mooyoung looked like he was trying to dodge from invisible attacks. After a few more seconds Mooyoung finally called Time Pause. Immediately everyone froze and I presumed I had to, though I don’t know for how long since Mooyoung brought me out of it by touching me.

       “I don’t have much dice left, so we gotta hurry!” Mooyoung said exasperated. We both rushed out of the room and down the stairs. We were soon pursued by his captors, they clamored down the stairs after us. We quickly exited the building with them hot on our trail.

As we ran I started questioning Mooyoung.

       “Who were those people?” I asked him. He shook his head but I knew he was lying. He knew those people, it was written all over his face.

       “I don’t know them… anyway what were you doing there?” Mooyoung asked as we made our way into the crowded streets still not slowing down. We pushed and shoved people around as we went past them.

       “I had a quest telling me to go there.” I answered, daring a glance backwards. The people who were pursuing us were slowing down, I think they were giving up.

       “Hey I think we’re losing them” I told Mooyoung. He also glanced back and then nodded. We ran a bit more and then slowly came to a stop. We were both out of breath and so we took a while to fill our lungs with air.

       “So are you going to be honest and tell me who they were now?” I asked him after I was somewhat back to normal. Again he shook his head.

       “They were no one.” He answered.

       “Right, that’s why they kidnapped you.”

       “They didn’t kidnap me.”

       “Then what do you call it when someone has you tied up and gagged?”

       “Well…I’m not sure. But I wasn’t kidnaped. They weren’t going to sell my organs on the black market or ask for a ransom or something.”

       “Of course not. They were probably after your dice. But they must have known you to know that you had special dice. So you must know who they are.”

       “I hate it when you use reason.”

       “And you’re admitting I’m right.”

       “Yea…I suppose I am.”

       “So, who are they?”

       “Well… would you accept it if I said they are just acquaintances?”

       “No.”

       “But that is what they are. I hardly know them, we meet up a few times a week to discuss other players and the information we have on them. We’re neither accomplices nor friends, just mutual benefactors you could say. All we do is trade information.”

       I didn’t know if I fully believed him but I decided to since that’s what I wanted. I hoped he wasn’t lying to me and for now I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.

       “Fine. So now what?” I asked.

       Mooyoung shrugged, “We could go back to your place….or…”

       “Or?” I prodded.

       “Or we could get some more special dice. I have a few attack plans to get some from the people carrying them.”

       “….are you going to kill them?” I asked tentatively.

       Mooyoung scratched the back of his head and then said, “...I’m not going to try to...”

        “If I don’t go with you now, I suppose you’ll go by yourself later, won’t you?”

       “Probably.”

       “Fine I’m going with you. To make sure you don’t end up killing anyone.”

       “Alright.” Mooyoung said with a smile.


	10. Chapter 10

**Mooyoung’s POV**

       We walked in silence, me leading the way and Taebin following close behind. In all honestly I hadn’t expected him to come with me, I actually hadn’t planned to even tell him about my plans on getting the other dice. But after thinking about it, I suppose it made more sense to have him tag along, we were a team after all.

       “Are we there yet?” Taebin asked.

       I shook my head, “No, still a ways to go. Are you sure you want to go right now?”

       Taebin didn’t say anything for a few seconds, which made me worry about what he was thinking. Why was he hesitating?

       “Yea…I’m sure.” He finally uttered.

       “….you hesitated.”

       “I was thinking.”

       “About?”

       “Well…I’m not sure…I’m pretty sure you’re aware that I don’t really trust you completely…” He paused for confirmation.

       I nodded, feeling a bit pained by his blatant statement though I had known all along.

       “…I feel like you are going to end up killing the people you’re going after…that’s all.” He finally finished.

       I sighed, it made sense he’d think that after what had happened in the past. No matter how much I might have wanted him to forget about that and completely start over, I knew that it wouldn’t happen. He was always going to doubt me, no matter how many years went by there would always be a small lingering feeling of doubt in him. I knew this because I had similar thoughts about someone from my past.

       “I really mean it when I say I’m not trying to kill them.” I said to Taebin.

       “I know…but you don’t really do a good job avoiding it.”

       I didn’t have a reply for that, it was a true statement. Even the dice I’d gotten this time around had been gotten through the deaths of their owners. Maybe having Taebin with me would help me stop killing people to obtain their dice. At the least it make me hesitate probably.

Hopefully hesitating would be enough to get Taebin to forgive me if I did end up killing them.

       “We’re here.” I said as we approached a house in a small somewhat deserted neighborhood. Most of the civilians living here were at work or out shopping. I had observed this place long enough to know that at this time of day only a few people stayed home. Our target was one of them. He was probably sitting at his computer, gaming, at this very moment. I went over the attack plan with Taebin, adjusting it so we’d both have a part to play.

       *************************************************************************************

**Taebin’s POV**

       Mooyoung picked the lock on the door and we let ourselves in. The door creaked as we opened and closed it quickly, a momentary panic came over me. Thankfully our target hadn’t heard the door squeak, or if he had, hadn’t bothered to ask who’d come in. Or maybe…our target wasn’t home. I don’t know why, but that thought comforted me somewhat. I suppose I really didn’t want to steal his dice this way, or maybe I was afraid of what Mooyoung might do to him. I let out a small sigh, shaking my head to try and clear the thoughts away. We made our way upstairs as quietly as possible and approached our targets room. I listened through the door and heard soft tapping sounds, as if he was typing on the keyboard. I motioned for Mooyoung, he nodded and we started initiating our plan. I stepped back and out of sight, while Mooyoung prepared to barge into the target’s room. He slowly turned the knob and pushed, the door opened with a slight creak. I held my breath, terrified for a second. The tapping sounds stopped and we heard a voice.

       “Who’s there?!” they exclaimed with a harsh tone. Mooyoung cursed and then pushed the door open all the way and barged in, I saw a flash of silver in his hand, and as soon as I went into the room I saw that he was holding a knife. He held it to our targets throat.

       “Hand over all your dice or else.” He said menacingly, his facial expression hard and focused. Instead of being scarred, our target smiled, with a mad look in his eyes as he started laughing hysterically.

       ******************************************************************************

       We both stared at each other in confusion. Why in the world was he laughing? There was nothing funny about this situation. He should be frightened, he should be pleading with us for another solution. That’s what I feel would be the natural response to this kind of situation. But he just sits there laughing his head off like he’s never seen anything funnier. Mooyoung finally snaps out of his confusion and questions him trying to be intimidating.

       “Why the hell are you laughing?! I seriously will hurt you, I might even kill you!” he yells at the kid.

       “Oh I’m sure you would Mooyoung. Your reputation precedes you after all.” The kid said with a smile. Mooyoung seems taken aback, I am to. How did he know Mooyoung’s name. From what Mooyoung told me, he shouldn’t know anything about Mooyoung. His next statement makes me even more wary.

       “But, you won’t kill me since Taebin’s here.” His smile becomes even crazier looking, and his demented eyes look so out of it that it causes me to shiver.

       “How…how did...you know my name?” I asked sensing things were about to become chaotic.

       Mooyoung’s knife had not left the kids throat but I could see that his hand was shaking slightly, it was hardly noticeable unless you were looking closely. The kid effortlessly pushed Mooyoung’s arm away and got up, not fearing that Mooyoung would stab him. And I was surprised that Mooyoung didn’t attempt to even once. The kid walked to his bed and brought out a box from underneath it. He laid it upon his bed and stepped back. He turned to face us, a smirk appearing on his face.

       “You want answers? Look in the box.” He said taking a seat in the bean bag next to his bed. I looked at Mooyoung nervously, wondering what we should do. What in the world could be in that box? Mooyoung looked uneasy as he stared at the box, almost as if he had seen it before.

       “What if we don’t want to?” Mooyoung asked. The kid just gave us another twisted smile and said, “Oh, I’m sure that’s not a problem. You will want to of course.”

       ******************************************************************************

**Mooyoung’s POV**

       I stared at the box in dread. I’d seen it before, a long time ago. It was something I thought I’d never see again. How had it ended up here? And what was in it now? These questions clogged my brain as I looked at the box. I could feel Taebin’s gaze on me. I didn’t dare look at him, if I did, I was afraid he’d see how freaked out I was and go into a panic. I looked at the kid again, took in his appearance for the first time. He had curly black hair, one blue eye, one silver eye, he also wore glasses, there was a small scar across his left cheek, and under his lip. I couldn’t match his face to anyone I knew or had known, but there was still something eerily familiar about him. The fact I couldn’t figure out what bugged and taunted me greatly.

       I finally forced myself to look away from him and move towards the box. Taebin stayed where he was which I was thankful for. I didn’t want him near me when I opened the box, if it still had the contents from back then, I didn’t want him to see it. I took a shaky breath and then opened the box.

 

 


	11. Chapter 11

** The Target’s POV **

       I watched as Mooyoung opened the box, a smirk playing on my face. I couldn’t wait to see his reaction, it had been a very long time since we’d seen each other and I had waited a very long time for this. The fact that Taebin was here made it all the better. He’d finally get to see the real Mooyoung, the one I’d known and seen change when he started gathering dice. It also pleased me that neither of them seemed to know who I was. Of course Taebin wouldn’t know me unless Mooyoung had told him about me, and I doubt Mooyoung would have done that. I was part of his past, someone he wanted to forget, but it was never going to be that easy, I wasn’t going to let him discard his past. I wasn’t going to let him bury it away, he was going to dig it up, and he was going to face what had happened.

       Mooyoung hesitantly opened the box and looked inside. He let out a strangled gasp and stepped back but ended up falling. Taebin rushed over to him in alarm and looked curiously up into the box. He looked confused over what he was seeing, not surprisingly. Of course he wouldn’t understand, only Mooyoung would. Mooyoung was still staring at the box in fear, it was obvious that he was remembering everything that the contents symbolized. I started laughing again seeing his expression. This caught his attention and he turned his gaze to me.

       “Samsusaegn…” Mooyoung murmured, his eyes holding mine as he struggled to grasp the fact that I was alive.

       “Yes. That’s me. Glad to see me?” I asked disdainfully.

       “But how…you…” he stuttered trying to form a coherent sentence.

       “Should be dead?” I supplied for him before continuing, “Yea, I know, but life is a funny thing, isn’t it? Here I am alive and well, at least physically.”

       “Mooyoung…who’s he?” Taebin asked him tentatively, clearly confused by the whole situation.

       I gazed at him, taking in his features once again. It didn’t surprise me that Mooyoung would fall for him, though when I’d first seen them kiss I had been surprised.

       “I’m guessing he hasn’t told you about me, Taebin. After all, he probably didn’t tell you anything about his past or his reason for wanting to challenge X.”

       “Who are you?” Taebin asked me directly seeming a bit mad.

       “Do you want to tell him, Mooyoung? Or should I?”

       Mooyoung didn’t respond for a few seconds but then I heard whisper quietly, “He’s my brother.”

       ******************************************************************************

**Taebin’s POV**

       After hearing the world brother uttered from Mooyoung I was officially more lost than I’d ever been. Brother? What? Since when did Mooyoung even have a family? He’d always acted as if they didn’t exist or were dead. I tried to wrap my brain around the fact that this person was his brother.

       “Step-brother actually.” Samsusaegn said.

       Ok, step-brother, still not any less shocking. But…what did he want? What was he doing here? And why did Samsusaegn seem to seethe with hatred for Mooyoung?

       “Is… Yeon...alive?” Mooyoung asked. Who was Yeon, I wondered.

       “What do you think? You really think she’d have survived that? You do realize it’s a miracle I’m alive. Did you think there’d been another one and that she survived to?” Samsusaegn sneered at him.

       “So she’s not..” Mooyoung said to himself looking very dejected.

       “Of course not. She’s dead, and it’s your fault.” Samsusaegn muttered angrily.

       “I didn’t…” Mooyoung started to say but was cut off by Samsusaegn.

       “You did! You meant to do it! She might not have meant anything to you, but she was my sister! And I have to live with the fact that she’s gone. She was my twin for crying out loud! Do you even know how much it hurts to have lost a twin? I’d do anything to have her back!” he yelled outraged and in an anguished voice as he stood up and toward over Mooyoung. He was breathing hard and seemed to be holding back tears as he glared at the ground as if he wanted it to open up and swallow him whole.

       I didn’t know what to do staring at the both of them. They both looked so lost and hopeless. Finally, Mooyoung got up, knife still in hand.

       “Let’s go Taebin.” He said as he started walking towards me. I saw Samsusaegn look up then, he glared at Mooyoung angrily.

       “Where do you think you’re going?” He asked, trudging towards Mooyoung and grabbing him by the collar.

       “You think you can just walk away from me?! Well, I’m not going to let you! I’m going to make you suffer like I have!” he continued to yell.

       “Let go. I don’t want to deal with you now.” Mooyoung said, clearly starting to get angry. Samsusaegn didn’t let go, and so Mooyoung punched him in face forcing him to let go. Samsusaegn retaliated with his own punch. Soon the both of them were clobbering each other, yelling obscene curses. I stood frozen for a few seconds and then tried to pull them off each other. Yelling at the both of them that someone would end up getting severely hurt. I managed to pull Mooyoung away and stood in front of him blocking Samsusaegn.

       “You both need to stop! I don’t know what happened between you two, but you gotta settle this another way!” I insisted as they both breathed hard still glaring at each other.

All of a sudden Samsusaegn ran to his desk, opened the drawer, and pulled out a revolver.

       “I’m going to kill the one you love, just like you did to me!” he yelled pointing the gun at me and taking off the safety lock before firing.

       ******************************************************************************

** Mooyoung’s POV **

       Samsusaegn fired the gun without hesitation and I barely had time to react as I called out time pause and push Taebin away from the line of fire. We both crashed to the floor as the world froze around us. I was breathing hard and couldn’t calm myself as I processed what had just happened. I quickly pushed myself off the floor and turned Taebin to face me checking him to make sure I hadn’t been too late. I saw a speck of blood appearing on his shirt. I started pulling it off as I kept asking him if he was ok.

       “Mooyoung stop! I’m fine! It just scratched me. See the bullet is over there.” He said pointing to a spot on the ground behind me. I quickly spared a glance behind me and saw that he was right. I let out a sigh in relief. Thank god. He was ok.

       “Thanks Mooyoung.” I heard Taebin say. I nodded and started getting up.

       “Come on, let’s get out of here. We don’t have much time.” I muttered as I helped him up. We both headed out as fast as we could but only made it to the living room before time unfroze. I heard Samsusaegn curse and start running down the stairs. He yelled at us to come back, and started firing at random. Bullets flew past the both of us, causing us to panic and separate. I dodged another bullet and found myself behind a kitchen counter. Samsusaegn was in the living room still firing at random. He saw me and rushed towards me aiming the gun at my head. I had little time to react, so I ended up stepping backwards, tripping over a chair, and crashing to the floor. I heard Taebin yell and then suddenly he was in front of me in the line of fire. I screamed at him to move but it was too late Samsusaegn had fired, yelling he would avenge his sister. I watched horrified as he pulled the trigger and I heard the loud bang. Then I watched the bullet hit Taebin and him fall to the ground in front of me, blood pouring from his side.

       My mind went blank, I don’t know what happened next. All I know is that a few minutes later I was holding Samsusaegn in a choke hold, his face and body battered and bruised. He was already unconscious when I realized what I was doing. I quickly let go of him and stepped away as he crumpled to the floor. My breathing was labored and I couldn’t see clearly. I turned away from Samsusaegn and found Taebin still on the ground, eyes closed, and blood still pouring from his side. I knew I had to get him out of here, to a hospital, but I was finding it hard to move. I kneeled down beside him and pulled up his shirt to look at the wound, it looked bad. I felt my eyes tear up as I called out his name, trying to get a response.

       “Taebin...Taebin! Come on, damn it! Answer me! You can’t die on me! Not now… not ever!” I yelled as I scanned the room looking for a phone. I found one and quickly grabbed a hold of it calling an ambulance.

       “Come on Taebin. Please wake up.” I sobbed as the phone rang. Someone finally answered. I quickly came up with a lie and yelled for them to hurry before hanging up though they’d told me not to. I stayed with Taebin till the ambulance arrived and took us all to the hospital. They insisted on checking on me though I kept yelling at them I wasn’t hurt and that they had to save Taebin. We were soon separated as they whisked him away to the ICU, not giving me a hint of how things were going, or reassuring me that he’d be ok.

       ******************************************************************************


	12. Chapter 12

**Taebin’s POV**

       When I came to I found myself in a completely foreign room. My first few thoughts were, where was I? What happened? Where was Mooyoung? The first few questions were answered promptly as a few doctors crowded around me and asked me a ton of questions. I was at the hospital and apparently I’d survived a bullet wound. They said I was lucky that it hadn’t hit my vital organs. But all I could think about is where Mooyoung was. I tried asking them but they shushed me when I tried to talk and told me they needed to run a few more tests before I could have visitors.

       After what felt like hours, they finally told me I was ok and let Mooyoung come in. I scanned him making sure he wasn’t hurt. He looked fine thankfully, but he also looked devastated. As soon as he came in he asked if I was alright. I nodded and said I was fine. He looked somewhat relieved. He quickly came over and gave me a hug before leaving the room saying he had to take care of something quickly.

       I wondered what he was going to do but didn’t question him as he left. I asked the nurse in the room when I’d be able to leave.

       “Well, we’d like to keep you here for observation tonight, but tomorrow you should be good to go if nothing goes wrong.” She said as she gave me some medication. I nodded and took the pills she’d handed me.

       ******************************************************************************

**Mooyoung’s POV**

       The next morning Taebin was released from the hospital, and we both went home to his place. He said he wanted to shower once we’d stepped inside, and so I told him to do so and that I’d cook breakfast for the both of us. He nodded smiling slightly before heading upstairs to shower. Once he left the room I sighed and headed to the kitchen. I was still preoccupied with all the events from yesterday. They kept running through my mind nonstop. After I’d been told Taebin was going to be ok and seen him for myself, I’d rushed to where Samsusaegn was being treated. He was awake when I entered his room and thankfully no doctors or nurses were present. He looked somewhat fearful when he saw me but mostly he looked furious.

       “What do you want?” He asked disdainfully.

       “Listen carefully to what I say now, cause I’m not repeating myself ever again. Got that?” I asked.

       “Yea sure whatever.” He muttered looking away, I became irritated. I grabbed his hospital robe and forced him to turn towards me.

       “Hey what are you doing?!” He yelled.

       “You listen to me. Don’t you ever pull a stunt like this again! Your fight is with me not Taebin. If you ever involve him again, I will not let it slide. I will haunt you down and kill you. Painfully and slowly, understand?”

       He nodded furiously seeming panicked by the intensity in my voice and words.

       “Good” I said letting him good and leaving.

       I hadn’t seen him since we left the hospital this morning and was hoping that I would for a while longer, and if I was lucky, never again.

       I finished cooking and setting the table just as Taebin entered the kitchen. He smiled when he saw me, his hair was still dripping with water and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He looked cute standing there looking at me. I soon saw a blush creep up his face when he noticed I was starring.

       “Uh, I should probably go put on a shirt, I’ll be right back.” He stated, turning around. I quickly went to him and put my arms around his waist pulling him close to me and resting my head on his shoulder, preventing him from leaving. We were both silent for a few seconds before he broke it.

       “Hey is something wrong?” He asked sensing my mood.

       “No, nothing.” I mumbled pulling him closer.

       “Hmm…are you worried about something?”

       “No.”

       “Are you scared?”

       “Yes.”

       “Of what?”

       “….of losing you.”

       We were both silent again, I was thinking about how I’d almost lost him twice yesterday, how I’d been so scared, and how I never wanted that to happen again.

       “I won’t die that easily…” Taebin said all of a sudden pushing away and turning to look at me. I frowned.

       “But you almost did….twice.”

       “But I survived.”

       “But what if you hadn’t?”

       “I will. I will survive every time, if I didn’t then who’d stop you from being so violent?” Taebin said cracking a smile and trying to brighten the mood. I smiled a little though I couldn’t shake the feeling that we could lose each other at any given moment. I looked at Taebin’s face taking in his features, the way his eyes shined, the way his hair was still dripping wet, and how he was smiling. I felt the sudden urge to hold him and never let go. As if reading my mind, he hugged me and then gave me a kiss.

       After the kiss, we gazed into each other’s eyes and then went upstairs to his bedroom. We made out as we went in, both of us in a daze, wanting more. I don’t know if it was all the emotions churning inside of me, or if the moment was just right, or what, but I wanted to be with him forever, to make sure we’d always be connected. And by how far we took things I assumed he’d wanted the same.

     ******************************************************************************

**Taebin’s POV**

I wasn’t to sure how I should feel at the moment. Mooyoung and I had finally done it, while it hadn’t been perfect it sure had been amazing, but I felt something was off. Maybe I was overthinking things? My mind raced with contradictions thinking I might be wrong about thinking something was off or that I was completely right and trying to find evidence of it. I sighed as I finished cooking and set the table.

Mooyoung was still asleep upstairs and I was wondering if I would have to end up waking him up. However by the time I finished setting the table Mooyoung had come downstairs. He rubbed his eyes as he drowsily entered the kitchen smiling at me.

“Good morning.” He said taking a seat.

“Morning” I replied.

“How are you feeling?”

“Good, you?”

“Never been better.” He answered smirking with a light blush spread across his face. I laughed a little as I sat down across from him. We both began eating and making small talk. Mooyoung seemed to be really happy and I couldn’t say that I didn’t feel the same. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and just enjoying ourselves.

Around noon while we were making out there was a knock at the door. Neither of us were expecting anyone to come so we had no clue who it could be. I went to the door and looked out the peephole to see Dongtae, Eunji, Mio, and a few other classmates there. I quickly unlocked the door and greeted them.

“Hey Taebin, we just came by to see if you were doing well, we heard about the accident. How are you feeling now?” said Eunji looking concerned.

“Uh I’m fine, I just can’t go to school for about a week.” I said giving her a reassuring smile.

“That’s good to know. Here, this is the homework that we got in class today.” Dongtae said handing me an manilla envelope.

“Thanks…” I said as I took it and realized I should invite them in for a while.

“Would you guys like to come in for a little bit?” I asked as I stepped aside and motioned for them to come in. They all filed in and went to the living room where Mooyoung was.

“Oh hey Mooyoung.” I heard Mio say as she took her seat. Mooyoung greeted them looking somewhat irritated. I left them and went to the kitchen where I quickly looked in the fridge to see if I had anything to offer our guests as refreshments. I found leftover cake and sandwiches which I quickly placed on a tray along with a few drinks. I then preceded to take it all to the living room and hand them out. We all conversed for a little bit before they decided to take their leave.

“You aren’t leaving yet Mooyoung?” Eunji asked as she got up.

“Uh no, I’ll be sticking around a while longer.” He said giving her a practiced smile.

“Alright, see you at school tomorrow then.” She said.

“Sure.” Mooyoung said pleasantly enough though I knew he was being sarcastic. Mooyoung and I escorted our classmates out and said our goodbyes. As soon as I closed the door, Mooyoung hugged me from behind and nibbled at my earlobe.

“Shall we pick up where we left off?” He asked seductively. I smiled a little and said sure.

****************************************************************************


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the reallllyyyyy late updates. College is a pain. I hope you guys still enjoy the story!!! The world needs more mooyoung/taebin fics.

**Mooyoung's POV**

The week went by a little too quick for my liking, and now we were back at school, however I was glad we had spent the whole week together. Taebin and I had bonded quite a bit over the course of the week and I felt closer to him than I ever had. Honestly I was overfilled with glee and could hardly contain it. I just loved being around Taebin, watching him do things he’d normally do, and being able to watch his reactions to me.

Things seemed almost perfect to me, and I wondered how much longer they’d stay perfect. From previous experiences I knew it wouldn’t stay perfect forever, after all nothing good ever lasts. Still I could feel that somewhere deep inside me I was hoping this time they would. I was lost in my train of thoughts I didn’t hear the teacher calling my name until Taebin nudged me. I stared at him as he motioned towards the front. I looked to the front to see our teacher staring at me quite menacingly.

“Mooyoung, why are you not paying attention? You’ve already missed a week for no good reason, and now this? Do you want me to send you to the principal?” The teacher asked sternly.

“No sir.” I answered unaffected by his tone. The teacher continued to stare and so I stared back challenging him to do something. Finally the teacher sighed and repeated the question he had asked and picked on another student to answer. I glanced back at Taebin, he was already looking at me. When he noticed I was staring at him as well he smiled and then turned his attention back towards the teacher, a light blush across his cheeks. I smiled as well and went back to daydreaming.

Just before our last class ended things got interesting.

******************************************************************************

**Taebin's POV**

My phone buzzed and it was rather loud, or so I thought until I looked around to see that everyone’s phones were out and buzzing. I internally sighed realizing this must be another one of X’s stupid games. Lately his games had become more and more violent. So many students and even teachers were in the hospital.

I pulled out my phone and began reading the message from X.

“Good Evening Everyone! TIME FOR A NEW GAME! There will be plenty of dice to win. And to motivate you’ll a bit more, the winner will get a special die! I’m sure that’s perked up your interest! Now the game this time is HIDE AND SEEK!

This is how we’ll play it: I will pick an object that is hidden that you all must find, I’m also picking a few people who have already been warned and have a five minutes head start to hide. The first person to find the object/person and destroy it/them will gain points. Every point equals a die! The person with the most points will get the special die. There will be a total of fifty objects/people to find, they are all worth the same amount of points except you can be creative about how you destroy them. The more creative you are with destroying the object the more points and dice you will receive. OK now for the rules…...the rules are that there are no rules! Everything is fair play! So have fun and go crazy! The game will start in five minutes -X”

The class was abuzz with chatter trying to figure out how they should approach this game. They formed teams and bragged about how they had this game in the bag. I glanced over to Mooyoung who looked rather bored. When he noticed me looking he gave me a smirk and asked what I was thinking.

“Nothing. This game sounds like it will just send more people to the hospital.” I stated.

“That’s for sure. No one has been safe since the games started. But don’t worry, I’ll protect you..” Mooyoung said, his smirk growing bigger and causing me to blush lightly.

“I don’t need you to do that.” I muttered.

“Sure, whatever you say princess. Anyway we have to win this since the reward is a special die. If not for that, this would have been a waste of time.”

I didn’t say anything to that. Thinking on it, I kind of needed more dice, since I’d spent a lot of it on power ups.

A timer went off, signaling the end of the five minutes and a list appeared on everyone’s screen. Looks like the game had begun.

******************************************************************************


	14. Chapter 14

** Taebin's POV **

I quickly looked through the list, surprised by many of the items on there and the specificity of them. Students were already dashing out of the classroom heading towards the items at the top of the list. Those seemed to be the easy ones to find, since most students typically knew where to look for them. The ones closer to the bottom or just past the 30th item would be more difficult to locate. I glanced over to Mooyoung and saw him scrolling down the list with a somewhat perplexed face.

“Which one do you want to look for first?” I asked him once I was finished going through the list. By this time the classroom was completely empty, the teachers were chasing the students since classes were technically still in session. Mooyoung looked up from his phone a slight frown crossing his features. “Let’s go look for the difficult ones.” He said and stood up exiting the classroom.

I followed wondering what was wrong. He had suddenly become distant and his mind seemed to be elsewhere, which was really odd considering how much he’d wanted that special die. Mooyoung didn’t say anything as he continued walking, I contemplated asking him what was wrong and where we were going but decided not to, and just followed. Thinking on it, he had become like this once he’d been looking through the list, so I quickly took out my phone and looked through the list more carefully while following him.

Suddenly I bumped into him since he’d stopped. “Sorry..” I muttered holding my nose and backing up a bit to look at why we’d stopped. Up ahead was the music room. What was going on? Were we going in there? I looked at Mooyoung and he looked...well...afraid. It was so unusual for me to see him like that, and I couldn’t understand why he’d look like that.

“Mooyoung?...What’s wrong?” I finally asked. He didn’t respond, he just kept staring at the door to the music room. I let out a small sigh and went in front of him opening the door, wondering just what could be in here. Upon opening it, I saw a girl in there softly tapping the keys of a piano, but no music could be heard. Who was she? Mooyoung came up behind me and let out a cry of fear and fell to his knees. This caused the girl to turn around and face us. I gasped when I saw her face. She looked exactly like Samsusaegn.

*****************************************************************************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More chapters will be up in a few days hopefully. I'd like to pretend this is how the story between Mooyoung and Taebin progresses instead of you know, Mooyoung literally being IN Taebin like the manhwa at the moment.


	15. Chapter 15

**Mooyoung’s POV**

This couldn’t be happening. There was no way she was alive. Yeon was not alive! I dared to glance up at her one more time. This time I saw her face, a face that had been haunting me for years. She looked exactly the same from the last time I’d seen her unlike her brother. Her curly flaming dark red hair was out and framed her delicate face as it fell in waves around her body reaching her waist. Her bright blue eyes peered into my own red ones with a pointed gaze, as if she was daring me to come closer. Her small pink lips were curved into a small frown but seemed to be playing at becoming a smile. 

I didn’t know what to do, I sat there frozen staring up at her. She wasn’t real, I kept repeating to myself. Even Samsusaegn had said she was dead, that it was a miracle he’d survived, so she shouldn’t be real. She just couldn’t! But yet...she was sitting there, her face as lifelike as ever. 

“Are...you Yeon?” I heard Taebin ask. The girls attention shifted from me to him. Her small frown turned into a slight smile as she answered him.

“And what if I am?” She asked sweetly. Even her voice was the same. 

“Uh…” Taebin probably didn’t know how to answer her as such he went silent again. Seeing as he wasn’t going to say anything the girl turned back to me. 

“You look well Mooyoung.” She said her frown returning, “..But I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less.”

“Wh..what…” I began to say but was cut off by her.

“Of course, you wouldn’t be consumed by guilt with what you did to our family.” She muttered as she stood up, but immediately fell and began cursing softly to herself. 

I just stared at her confused, why had she fallen? Taebin rushed to help her up. He helped her sit back on the bench in front of the piano, asking if she was alright. She thanked him and said she was fine.

“It’s just I have very little strength in my body.” She said as way of explanation.

I slowly stood up finally beginning to accept the fact this might really be Yeon. That she had somehow survived after all, that Samsusaegn had lied. I slowly began making my way to her but as soon as she noticed me coming closer she raised her hand palm facing outward, stopping me.

“Don’t you dare step any closer.” She said, her voice like steel. She glared at me, her bright eyes slowly turning cold. “What are you even doing here? Wasn’t killing me once enough? Did you really have to come after me a second time? And for what this time? Another stupid quest?!” She spat out venomously. I just stared at her uncertain what to say, still having a hard time believing she was real. All thoughts about the quest had left me in all honestly once I’d laid eyes on her.

******************************************************************************

**Taebin’s POV**

I stared at the girl, presumably Yeon. I couldn’t get over the fact of how alike she and Samsusaegn looked. Sure they had different hair color and eye colors, but their faces...they were identical, it would be impossible to not notice they were twins or at least brother and sister. They both had small faces, large eyes, small lips, and small noses, also I had noticed that both of them had something like star shaped birthmark on one of their cheeks really close to their ears. For Samsusaegn it had been his left cheek and had been hidden by his hair and so I’d only caught a glimpse of it. But Yeon, hers was visible on her right cheek since she kept her hair out of her face.

Right now, she looked really mad as she stared Mooyoung down, her brows knitted together in anger, and her body tense. I was surprised when I heard her ask Mooyoung if he’d come to kill her for the quest. I hadn’t even realized that her name was listed on there. I quickly brought up the list once more and scanned through it. Finally my eyes landed on what I thought her name should be, Yeon Kim Lee (Nickname: Leelee). I looked back up to Yeon and then to Mooyoung who had a mixture of emotion displayed on his face. Confusing, disbelief, anger, guilt, and a hint of...grief. Seeing that made me realize just how much Yeon must have meant to him. Yet now that they were seeing each other again, Yeon was being so mean to him. But in all honesty I couldn't blame her, based on my own history, I could understand her distrust. 

“So what is it Mooyoung? Are you going to kill me again!” She yelled at him before turning her face towards me, her anger still displayed upon her features. “Or are you gonna have your boyfriend do it for you?” She asked turning away from me in disdain, which confused me, since she’d smiled at me in the beginning. 

“I...I...w..” Mooyoung began stuttering looking really unsettled. He took a shaky breath and finally steadied himself, he looked Yeon straight in the eyes before speaking once more. “No..I’m not here to kill you...neither is he.” He answered and then walked closer to us. 

“Stop!” She screamed at him, I noticed she looked a bit scared as Mooyoung approached us. Mooyoung, however didn’t stop this time, he approached her with hurried steps and stopped in front of her bending down to her level. 

“...I never wanted to kill you...you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He said to her and then straightened back up. “Where’s Samsusaegn?” He asked her. 

“Why should I tell you?” She said harshly her body shaking slightly. 

“Because I have a few questions to ask him. Now tell me where he is.” Mooyoung said equally harshly to her. 

“I don’t know.” She answered looking away from Mooyoung. I saw Mooyoung grit his teeth before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the door. Just before leaving he turned back to her and asked, “Does anyone at this school know who you are?” 

Yeon shook her head looking at Mooyoung once again. 

“Good, then stay here.” Mooyoung said and slammed the door closed behind him. He then turned to me and suddenly hugged me. I felt his body shake a little as he hugged me tightly.

“Taebin...I have a favor to ask you…” he whispered in my ear.


	16. Chapter 16

**Taebin's POV**

“What favor?” I asked hesitantly. 

“Can...you do this quest without me?” Mooyoung asked.

“..Sure...but that’s..not really a favor.” I answered. Mooyoung let go of me and chuckled lightly before replying.

“Well, I consider it a favor, win this quest for us ok? I need to take care of somethings.” Mooyoung said before walking off and teleporting before I could ask what he needed to do. I sighed, wondering what exactly he was up to. I glanced back at the closed music room before walking away. Whatever Mooyoung was doing wasn’t important at the moment. I needed to win this quest to receive that special die. 

I glanced at my phone wondering how many of the items had already been destroyed, surprisingly X was letting us know which ones had been destroyed and so far 10 items were crossed of the list. I quickly looked at the slightly harder to find items and began my search, intent on destroying the items before anyone else could find them. 

Within thirty minutes I had thankfully able to find many of the items before others did, and even managed to destroy them in creative ways. Currently, an hour had passed since the game had started, and only 27 of the items had been destroyed. I was sort of surprised that so few items had been found and destroyed. 

As I searched for another item on the list, I wondered what Mooyoung was doing, I’d honestly hoped he’d come back and help me while the game was still going on, but so far that didn’t seem to be likely to happen. I stepped out onto the rooftop and glanced around seeing that no one was there I quickly approached the maintenance room up there and used my dice to blast open the door. Inside I found the item I was looking for, a broken old gold pin. What a weird item to choose. I was seriously begin to question how X found and choose these items. 

Quickly I used some for dice to burn the pin until it melted into a small gold puddle on the rooftop. This was the seventh item I’d found and apparently the way I’d destroyed was creative enough for X to award me fifty points, the most I’d been given so far. I looked to see who was ahead of me in terms of points. X had been gracious enough to have each person know the five people who were ahead of them. From what I could tell there were only four people ahead of me, so that must mean I was already in fifth place with 2300 points. I wondered just how much more points I’d need to make it to first place, which was currently held by...Mio it seems? That was surprising, I never expected that, that pink haired girl was sure full of surprises. 

I went back to the list of items and quickly picked out one of them and rushed off in search of a blue ribbon with fake strawberries attached to it. 

******************************************************************************

** Mooyoung’s POV **

I quickly teleported away before Taebin could ask any questions. I teleported to the school’s security room and was glad to find none of the security guards in there. I quickly got to work, rewinding the footage for the past fifteen minutes before playing it. I glanced from screen to screen trying to locate where Samsusaegn was. Five minutes into the footage I finally spotted him in the library with some girl. I quickly fast forwarded to see where he went next then left immediately realizing he was headed towards the classroom at the end of the second floor. I ran as fast as I could, shoving people out of my way as I ascending the stairs to the second floor. 

Finally I reached the room and barged into it, disturbing the few people inside. There were a total of four people in there including Samsusaegn, two girls and one other guy. They were all tensed to fight when I barged in, and realized that they were probably fighting over an item, which was probably the weird yellow thing in pink haired girl’s hands.

“You won’t take this away from me!” The pink haired girl yelled to everyone as she began to bang the thing against the wall denting it. A brown haired boy stood in front of her keeping her safe while the other girl tried to attack. Samsusaegn was about to attack as well, but I grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

“You have a lot of explaining to do!” I shouted at him.

“But the quest!” He yelled back trying to get rid of my vice like grip on his arm.

“Damn the quest!” I screamed turning to face him. “Why did you tell me Yeon was dead?!” i shouted in pure anger. 

Samsusaegn was silent for a moment and then smirked, “So you found her in the music room?” He asked looking smug. I punched him in the face unable to hold back the fury I was feeling.

“TO HELL WITH YOU, FUCKING  EXPLAIN WHY SHE IS STILL ALIVE!” I screamed as loud as I could at him. Samsusaegn actually looked slightly frightened by my outburst, but as soon as the look had come it disappeared. 

“And why should I? I don’t owe you anything! I stayed away from Taebin, so you got no reason to pick a fight with me! Why the hell should you care that Yeon is alive anyway?!” He yelled back at me. I glared at him with my most murderous gaze backing him into a wall and pinning him there.

“Don’t you fucking mess with me you piece of shit, tell me why she is alive and why the fuck you lied bitch!” I said swearing more and more at him. But Samsusaegn seemed unfazed by it all, he kept his face blank and his eyes glared at my own in silent defiance. I chuckled slightly before speaking again. 

“You seriously gonna stay silent bastard? Fine, I have ways of making shitheads like you squeal.” I said menacingly and teleported us to the music room to retrieve Yeon.


End file.
